• Complete streets: What went wrong?

    Law professor Michael Lewyn has written a comprehensive and readable analysis of the complete streets movement, why it has failed to transform America’s streets, and what can be done.
    The term “complete streets” was invented by staff members of national bicycle and smart growth advocacy organizations in 2003, and it was brilliantly effective in terms of moving legislation. Complete street policies have been the most adopted category of laws impacting transportation and the built...Read more

  • Focusing on transportation affordability

    A new report highlights how planners can help households reduce cost of living through policies that boost low-cost modes of mobility.
    Housing affordability has become a national political issue, but maybe we are looking at affordability in the wrong way. We tend to look at housing costs in isolation. Rarely are household transportation costs given the same treatment, yet they are the second highest cost that households face—...Read more

  • Model cottages for hurricane recovery

    A tiny village of affordable cottages has just been built in Asheville, and the timing is fortuitous. That region desperately needs emergency housing that could also last and contribute to long-term sustainability.
    As the Asheville region recovers from the terrible effects of Hurricane Helene, the coming year will see a huge need for emergency and long-term housing. As it happens, a nonprofit called Beloved Asheville is just now completing a tiny village that could be a model for building housing affordably...Read more

  • Responding to disaster with placemaking hubs

    New urbanists are working in devastated areas in North Carolina, helping to set up the kernels of community rebuilding.
    After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, new urbanists ran a charrette in an enormous ballroom, drawing elaborate plans to rebuild 11 cities and town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. That historic effort had long-term benefits, but was arguably far removed from day-to-day realities of the victims at the time...Read more